Chuck Vs The Normal Life
by GandalfTheFunky
Summary: Chuck has tried and tried to accept the status quo, but it becomes increasingly difficult as time goes by.
1. Chapter 1

Chuck vs. The Normal Life

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to NBC, I'm just playing.

**Please bear with me as this is my first attempt at writing of any sort in many years, much less my first fic. This first chapter is very aimless, just an attempt to get into a flow. Subsequent chapters will begin heading in a specific direction of which I am yet unsure. Please critique. **

Chuck had never been good at this sort of thing. Well, not since Stanford anyway. He sat on the end of his bed, mentally rehearsing the words he wanted to say, the posture he needed to maintain while he spoke. The late-night television host that was doing his opening standup routine on Chuck's bedroom television broke through his thoughts and Chuck couldn't help but laugh at the political joke that had been told. He had an entirely new viewpoint on the government and the President due to the events of the last few months, to be sure.

He picked the remote controller up from his bed, turned the television set off, thought again about the conversation he was hoping to have with Sarah in a few minutes, and threw the controller against his pillow in frustration. Why couldn't he just tell her how he felt? Why couldn't he just tell Sarah that he couldn't continue along merrily living a lie? He had been able to tell her that he couldn't separate fiction from reality while he was interested in Lou; what was so different now? He sighed and told himself he knew very well what was different. This time there was no sandwich maker to distract him, no "real relationship" to keep his mind off of the gorgeous CIA agent who had walked into his life with a not-so-broken cell phone.

Chuck took a deep breath and steeled himself once again, running through lines in his mind according to the script he had written. His heart sank as he continued, he knew that as soon as Sarah came through his bedroom door in a few minutes that all preconceived notions of what should be said would go by the wayside. Knowing that his preparation was in vain, he sighed deeply and fell onto his bed, massaging his temples with his fingertips.

"Damn it!" Sarah had let her mind wander and had poked a large runner in the pantyhose she was pulling up her leg. She found that ever since she had taken this assignment, this assignment that should have been over practically before it started. She looked through the drawers in her hotel room for another pair of hose and cursed once more when the search yielded nothing but thigh highs and garters. Poor Chuck wouldn't be able to stand it if he caught a peek at those when she crossed her legs, so those were out. The guy certainly didn't need any more help struggling with focus. She walked to the bathroom and slid the short evening dress over her shoulders, grateful she had taken the time earlier to shave her legs if she was going to go without stockings.

Sliding into her shoes and buckling the straps, she walked over to her nightstand and checked the time on her iPhone. In order to be at dinner with Ellie and Awesome at eight, she had to be out the door in fifteen minutes at seven, which would give her the time to drive to Chuck's to pick him up and rehearse their cover for any questions that would occur that night during dinner.

Placing her phone into the clutch she would be carrying that night and securing the garter that held her throwing knives, she walked to the full-length mirror to make any finishing touches. Chuck was probably going to swallow his tongue when he saw the short black mini dress with the deep red satin lining she'd been saving, the poor guy. Sarah couldn't help but smile at the thought of his eyes widening and the small step back he would take upon seeing her when he answered the front door.

She enabled the motion detectors that would send trigger her phone with the view from her hidden cameras as the entered the hallway, nodded to the bellhop and walked down the hallway, entering the elevator. As she listened to the synthesized music playing she thought once again about Chuck and smiled. She loved surprising him by looking nice, even though she knew she could honestly show up in a burlap sack and he would still step back wide eyed and try not to stare.

As she pulled her Porsche out onto the street and merged into traffic, she tried to ignore the fact that her smile got just a bit wider with each street that brought her closer to Chuck's.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2

**I apologize for the glaring errors in my first chapter…like I said, it's been a while and I did some editing without looking before and ahead, so to speak. I hope everyone enjoys ch. 2, we'll just wade through the fluff until direction reveals itself to me. **

As Sarah had anticipated, Chuck opened the door and stepped back immediately, appreciating the effort she always put into her looks. Then almost on cue he quickly realized he was staring, looked her in the eye and turned to flank the door, gesturing rather sheepishly for her to enter the apartment. She watched him shut the door and turn around slowly, as if he were scared to find her looking at him when he turned to face the room. He was dressed handsomely, a crisply starched off-white shirt hung nicely over his shoulders, a feature that Sarah had been noticing more of lately. She thought he had been looking a bit stouter since Bryce had shown up and left, and smiled at the thought that he had been working out to level the playing field a bit.

Chuck ushered her upstairs to his room, gently placing a hand on her lower back as they walked up the stairs. Their agreement to be friends after the Lon Kirk debacle had remained in tact these past few months, and neither acknowledged the tingling sensations that occurred when they had to make physical contact. Their cover needed no work here at the Bartowski home of course, but Chuck had recently become a bit more comfortable with touching Sarah, it seemed. Not that Sarah minded, of course.

They entered Chuck's room, closing the door behind them. Chuck turned the television on in the background to give a bit of noise to cover their conversation and turned back toward Sarah. "So, what bases do we need to cover tonight?"

Sarah looked at him and smiled. "What, no small talk? Tonight's not all business, you know. It's technically our six-month anniversary as a couple."

"Right, right," Chuck replied. "Our six-month anniversary would be huge in Chuck-world, if our relationship were remotely real." Sarah tensed a bit at his use of that particular phrase, he hadn't said that since they brought Zarnow in. That had been a long time ago, before they had gotten to know each other very well; Chuck had been doing so well these last months since their agreement at the Christmas, er, Holiday party at the Buy More.

"Well," Chuck quickly continued, "Ellie will be surprised and honored that we've invited her and Awesome along for our anniversary dinner date." He stood up and walked the couple steps to the closet as he continued, "If you could explain that it was important to you for them to be there it would be great." He picked up two ties from a hanger in his closet and held them out for Sarah to choose one.

"Other than the normal small talk, is there anything you'd like to bring up in conversation?" Sarah asked the question as she pointed at the dark red tie in Chuck's left hand, because of course she wanted them to match tonight. It was their six-month anniversary! "Something at work, or the idiot who cut us off on the way home the other day? Or maybe something that happened the other day on our lunch break," she added with an impish grin.

Chuck had the unfortunate timing of hearing the last comment Sarah made while right in the middle of a deep drink of the Bawlz caffeine-charged beverage he had just opened. A large portion of the carbonated liquid ran down his windpipe as Sarah's inappropriate remark and saucy eyebrow raise caused him to sharply draw a breath. Coughing loudly and regurgitating the liquid down the shirt he was wearing, he waved Sarah off as she sprang to his side to make sure he was all right. Taking a couple of deep breaths as he stood up, he looked at himself in the mirror and realized that it was a good thing he had taken more than just one shirt to be cleaned and pressed the other day. He walked to the closet to pull two other shirts from the bar and hold them out for Sarah's approval.

Twelve minutes later Chuck held the driver's door to Sarah's Porsche open for her and walked around to the passenger side, thinking that it was going to be a fun night, for once. There was no mission, no bugs, no directives, no nothing. Tonight was just going to be a night out for him and Sarah, with Ellie and Awesome. They were going to the nicest steakhouse in L.A. and were going to walk the strip afterward. As he settled into the passenger seat and pulled the seat belt across his chest, he looked across at Sarah and smiled. He didn't know why he'd been so worked up earlier, this was going to be all right. Sarah smiled back at him and put the car in gear.


	3. Chapter 3, I Ran

**Well, I was going to just "Chuck" this project, but after reading some especially inspired writing over the past few days I've decided to give chapter 3 a go. I have, however, decided to fast-forward through the dinner, as I haven't the slightest idea at this point how to write Ellie or Awesome. Hopefully this one ends up a bit longer, and you all enoy it!**

**Just to be clear, I still own nothing here and do not intend to profit from any of it. Just dabbling.**

…………………………………………………..

Stepping out onto the sidewalk in front of the Chophouse, Sarah and Chuck smiled and laughed as they said their goodbyes to Ellie and the good Captain. They were going to be on their own for the rest of the evening, as the two doctors had early morning shifts at the hospital coming in a few hours. As the taillights of Ellie's BMW sped off into the distance, Sarah turned to Chuck and asked him what their plans for the remainder of the evening entailed.

As Sarah finished her question, Chuck smiled from ear to ear in what would be described by most as a "something-eating grin." He reached into his jacket pocket and produced two tickets to the LA House of Blues, his thumb perfectly placed to hide the name of the headlining band.

"Oh, nothing much, we're just going to the House of Blues. Do you remember when we went out on our first 'date,' how you mentioned you didn't really listen to music so much anymore?"

"Yes," Sarah replied, her left eyebrow cocked, a wary smirk playing on her lips.

"Well," Chuck continued, "there's a group playing there tonight that I think even someone as disconnected from the music scene as you are might remember. That, my dear Sarah Walker is all I am going to say."

Try as she might, the entire twenty minute drive to the House of Blues Sarah could not get any more information out of the lanky man in the passenger seat of her Porsche. They arrived at the House of Blues, and Chuck insisted on reaching across to hand the fifteen dollars to the man at the event parking lot.

Sarah became keenly aware of their proximity as the man fished out the five dollar bill to give Chuck his change from the twenty he had handed through her driver's side window, and largely "for the cover's sake" she leaned forward to kiss Chuck on the cheek before he leaned back into his own seat.

"Hey now, what was that for?" Chuck was rapidly turning a shade that rivaled his deep red tie as he returned to his side of the car.

Sarah laughed and gave him a something-eating grin of her own as she replied. "That was for paying the parking fee, of course."

Chuck shook his head as she pulled into the parking space the man had indicated and shifted the car into park. "Don't be silly Sarah, everyone knows it's the fake boyfriend's responsibility to pay for parking. Fake girlfriends everywhere would laugh at me and mock me and use me as an example of what their fake boyfriends should never do if I had let you pay. Well, shall we?" Chuck quickly opened the door and exited the car to avoid the punch that Sarah was laughingly aiming at his shoulder.

After waiting for Chuck to run around the car and open her door for her (he had made it a firm point earlier in the evening that on a night like this, a lady shouldn't be opening her own doors), Sarah stood up out of the sports car and let Chuck close the door behind her. Linking arms with her date/pseudo-date/no, just date for the evening, they began to walk across the parking lot to the front of the House of Blues. Sarah, noticing something a bit odd about the appearance of some of the male patrons entering the building, leaned over to speak to Chuck in a low voice.

"Chuck, look at the way those guys have their hair done! They've got the sides curled up over the top, and the middle is swept down over their face! It seems like I've seen that hairdo on an old TV show I remember watching in high school, but I can't place why it was so funny…"

Chuck laughed aloud and, without answering, just pulled her along as he started to walk a bit faster before she could place the haircut. They arrived at the front door, walked up to the bouncer, and over the blaring music of the opening act's final song Chuck handed their tickets to the ticket-taker. Sarah caught a glimpse of the band's name on the tickets as the man was tearing them in half to give the stubs back to Chuck, and she looked wide-eyed at her friend and laughed out loud.

"Chuck Bartowski, ONLY you would know that A Flock of Seagulls are still together and only YOU would be nerdy enough to actually get tickets for their show in L.A.!"

Chuck laughed and pulled her inside, where they made their way to the bar. He ordered a Long Island Iced Tea for himself and a Lynchburg Lemonade for Sarah without asking if she wanted something, and she found herself shaking her head and smiling for at least the tenth time that night at Chuck Bartowski.

"Chuck, if I wanted to go to a club and get drunk so I could be taken advantage of, I could have gone out with any random guy in Los Angeles!" Sarah Chuck turned toward her and placed her drink in her hand and replied.

"Maybe that's the point, Sarah. Maybe tonight I wanted you to feel like you were just a regular girl, out on a regular date with a regular guy. Like your regular boyfriend took you to a regular club to see a regular band. Well, scratch that part about the regular band. Cheers!" With that, Chuck clinked his Long Island Tea to her Lynchburg Lemonade and took a healthy drink.

……………………………………………………….

Time seemed to fly by as they just enjoyed an evening out with one another, dancing, drinking, telling jokes and having fun. All too soon it was nearing one o'clock and Flock of Seagulls was about to end their first set with their most famous song. Chuck paid their tab (who knew he could drink like that) and Sarah, feeling a bit tipsy after freely imbibing in more than just a drink or two wrapped her arms around Chuck and squeezed him tight. "Thank you, Chuck Bartowski, for a great night out. This is easily the best six-month anniversary I've ever had."

Chuck, perhaps running on liquid courage, squeezed her back far tighter than he would have considered doing under different circumstances. As the band started playing "I Ran," he let go long enough to take his credit card back from the bartender and sign his receipt. He stuffed his wallet back into his back pocket, grabbed Sarah's hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor, despite her repeated protests.

Reaching a spot on the hardwood floor that was not occupied by guys and girls who looked like they had arrived in a time machine, he turned towards Sarah and quickly raised their hands and twirled her around.

_**And I ran, I ran so far away,**_

Laughing, Sarah did the same and raised Chuck's hand up so that he could spin in return. He obliged, though he did have to duck a bit as he didn't fit underneath their raised hands quite as well as Sarah did.

_**I just ran,**_

As Chuck completed his twirl, his foot struck a sticky spot on the dance floor left by the fruity drink of the last person dancing in the space he and Sarah had chosen. As his foot stopped and he kept moving, he lost his balance and nearly fell, taking Sarah with him.

_**I ran both night and day…**_

After taking a moment to right themselves and thanking Heaven they did not fall and make fools of each other on the dance floor, Sarah Walker and Chuck Bartowski stopped dancing. Their hands remained clasped together from supporting each other and each saving the other from falling, and the same spark that happened each time they touched ignited in all twenty of their fingertips.

Chuck felt Sarah's palms begin to sweat. He looked down at their hands and took a deep breath. Letting go of Sarah's hands slightly, he repositioned his own hands back into hers so that their fingers would intertwine.

Sarah watched Chuck's hands reposition themselves in her own, and took a deep shaky breath as she slid her fingers down Chuck's to regain their grasp.

Chuck and Sarah slowly brought their gaze from each other's hands up to the other's eyes, and simply stood there for a few moments. It felt to them like the dance floor melted away from around them as they stood there, away from bugs, bombs, guns, terrorists, and drugs. It was, for a moment, just them. Chuck felt a lump in his throat and swallowed hard, then licked his lips.

Slowly Sarah brought her hand to his jaw and traced his lips with her thumb, brushing off the extra moisture. She stepped forward, removing the six inches of space remaining between them.

_**I couldn't get away.**_


End file.
